1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heating/cooling system having a storage chamber usable in a switched hot/cold state.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 17, this type of heating/cooling system has heretofore comprised a storage chamber 101 partitioned into a cooling chamber 102 and a heating chamber 103 by an insulated wall, and a machine chamber 109 disposed under the storage chamber 101. Moreover, the machine chamber 109 contains a compressor 111, a gas cooler 112, a capillary tube 116 which is pressure reduction means and the like, and constitutes a refrigerant circuit 110 together with an evaporator 117. An electric heater 180 is disposed in the heating chamber 103, and air heated by the electric heater 180 is sent into the heating chamber 103 by a fan 128 to thereby heat the heating chamber 103.
Here, an operation of a conventional heating/cooling system 400 will be described with reference to FIG. 17. When an operation of the fan 128 is started by a control device (not shown), and electric power is supplied to the electric heater 180, the air heated by the electric heater 180 is circulated in the heating chamber 103 by the fan 128. Accordingly, the inside of the heating chamber 103 is heated.
Moreover, the control device starts the operation of a fan 127, and starts a driving element (not shown) of the compressor 111. Accordingly, a low-pressure refrigerant gas is sucked and compressed in a cylinder of a compression element (not shown) of the compressor 111 to constitute a high-temperature/pressure refrigerant gas, and the gas is discharged to the gas cooler 112.
Furthermore, the refrigerant gas releases heat by the gas cooler 112, and enters the capillary tube 116 via an internal heat exchanger 145, the pressure is lowered in the tube, and the gas flows into the evaporator 117. There the refrigerant evaporates, and absorbs the heat from ambient air to thereby perform a cooling function. It is to be noted that the air cooled by evaporation of the refrigerant in the evaporator 117 is circulated in the cooling chamber 102 by the operation of the fan 127 to cool the inside of the cooling chamber 102. Thus, in the conventional heating/cooling system, the inside of the heating chamber 103 has heretofore been heated by the electric heater 180, and the cooling chamber 102 is cooled by the evaporator 117 of the refrigerant circuit 110 (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 6-18156).
Here, in recent years, a hot/cold switch-usable heating/cooling system has also been developed in which both a heating member such as an electric heater, and an evaporator are disposed in one storage chamber. When the storage chamber is heated, a heater is operated to heat the storage chamber. When the storage chamber is cooled, the operation of the electric heater is stopped, the operation of the compressor is started, and the refrigerant is evaporated by the evaporator to cool the storage chamber. However, as described above, the storage chamber is heated by a heating member such as an electric heater, and therefore a problem has occurred that power consumption remarkably increases.